Chicken pox vaccine for toddler

Hi there,


Just like to gather some thoughts on the above. It's not part of the immunisation schedule in Singapore but recommended to have because even though it doesn't guarantee complete immunity, it will lessen the symptoms if the child does get it.


I had chicken pox when I was 6 and it was UTTER MISERY and I still have some scars to prove it. So while I think it's likely we will have the vaccine, my reservation is:

if it doesn't guarantee immunity, then what if my child gets chicken pox as an adult, which I understand can be extremely serious then?


Love to hear from other mums whose children have been vaccinated or are planning to on this! Please do not sidetrack and turn this into a debate about the evils of vaccines as some have been known to do....

Hi There,

Both my sons have the chicken pox vaccinated in singapore. And they still get chicken pox in shanghai.

The only 'plus point' on having vaccinated is they don't leave any scars on face/body. I had chicken pox when I was 16 year....is terrible experiences as I developed few days high fever,can't sleep(itchy) and chicken pox marks on my face forever.

Therefore, let your child have the vaccine as it will minizse the pox mark and itchiness.

Rdgs

We are provaccine, and had this one for #1 already - while not 100% it is better than nothing...

both kids have been vaccinated....all for not having them get it if possible, and if not - a mild case is much nicer than the huge scars my husband has.

my cousin got chicken pox first, so our parents got us all together (four in total - my sister and two cousins) so we all had it at the same time, and we were at my parents house playing every day, taking bath in that pink suff (calmoline?) and having counting competitions every day... I was the youngest and remember the itching as bad, but the week of playing as fun!


But this was the way children were 'immunized' before - be sure they got it young, so my parents intentionally gave it to me as soon as the first 'pox' appeared on my cousin!


It was probably worse on our parents - putting up with the four of us!

Thanks mums! My plan is to do it but was just concerned that if he passes through childhood without contracting chicken pox, whether he might get it as an adult which i understand it can be really bad.



my brother passed me the lovely chicken pox when i was 6 and right after that, mumps...i remember the only good thing that came out of it was a tea trolley set that mum bought me to cheer me up! :)

Hi Wheelymate

Two months ago, I contracted chicken pox from the toddler next door (she was playing at our house the day before her spots came out).


I am 40, so I feared the worst as you can imagine, contracting chicken pox at my age! Complications from chicken pox (like pneumonia if it goes to the lungs, or meningitis if it goes to the brain)are rare but are more likely the older you are.


Fortunately, I didn't feel sick during this period, only extremely uncomfortable for 3 days due to the overwhelming itchiness. I was on anti-virals (ie Zovirax) for 5 days, which helped to reduce the severity and duration of the chicken pox. I was also on a course of anti-histamines to relieve the itchiness. Overall, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, due largely to the impact of the anti-virals.


Unfortunately, my 18 month old son contracted chicken pox from me. He has two small chicken pox marks/scars on his face. Hopefully, these will recede with time.


My other son, who is nearly 4 years old, was vaccinated against chicken pox when he was 2 years old. Even though he was exposed to his brother and myself whilst we had chicken pox, he did not contract it.


BTW, my doctor told me that the chicken pox vaccine is between 70% to 85% effective.


As an aside, my helper who is 50 years old, has never had chicken pox, but she was of course exposed to both myself and my 18 month old son when we were contagious. Her 3 children had chicken pox when they were little. My doctor said that she has obviously built up an immunity to chicken pox (ie her body has built up anti-bodies to fight the chicken pox) from repeated exposure to it.


I discovered I had no immunity to chicken pox (from one of the blood tests I had during my second pregnancy). If you contract chicken pox either in the early stages of pregnancy, or in the later stages of pregnancy, it can lead to birth defects in the unborn child.


As an aside, I was planning to have my 18 month old son vaccinated against chicken pox, when he turned 2, but I was overtaken by events.


I suspect the reason why chicken pox is so prevalent is because vaccination against chicken pox is only optional, consequently only a small percentage of toddlers are vaccinated against it.


Regards Roz

As I understand it, if you have the CP vaccine it greatly reduces the risk of shingles in later life. Both my toddlers had the vaccine last year with no ill effects.

Regards

SSbabes

dear sydexpat and ssbabes,


thanks for sharing!


we have decided to get the chicken pox vaccine so that if he does contract it during childhood, it will be less severe.


and as for adulthood which was my concern, i forgot and my mum reminded me these days, there are medication for chicken pox (pricey though) that can get you well pretty quickly and lessen the possibilities of scarring.


so definitely will do it....

My kids all had chickenpox before the age of 4, in none of them was it a bad illness, despite one of them being covered in every conceivable place you can think of. Low grade fever for a day, itching was controlled with calomine lotion. Most of my friends kids also had it when young. Why give them a vaccine when it isn't that reliable. Better to go down the old route, proactively try and get them to catch while young, build up their own immunity naturally.

The advice we recieved from our doctor was if our child had not contracted Chicken Pox by the time she was 10yrs then vacinate - and this is what we did. Our younger child contracted the virus at 5yrs, it was fairly mild with no complications so hence no need to vacinate. This advice worked well for us.